ABSTRACT
Bangladesh had become an independent state, recognized initially only by India and Bhutan. During the summer of 1971, a number of Bengali officers of the Pakistan Foreign Service defected and were permitted to remain in the countries they were serving in, despite the objections of Pakistan, which correctly saw them as propagandists for the emerging Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his party favored a parliamentary form of government, and his relinquishment of the presidency in favor of the prime ministership affirmed this. The unacknowledged model for the document was India's constitution. The federal provisions of the Indian constitution were omitted, as Bangladesh would be a unitary state. Problems of law and order aggravated by large numbers of arms and difficult conditions continued throughout Mujib's tenure and helped provoke his suspension of democracy. The carefully managed democratic forms put in place by Ziaur Rahman had ended and a new period of military authoritarianism was to be the future of Bangladesh.
